Gene expression in the human VTA of cases with alcohol abuse. Homo sapiens

Drugs of abuse including nicotine and alcohol elicit their effect by stimulating the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system. There is a high incidence of nicotine dependence in alcoholics. To date only limited data is available on the molecular mechanism underlying the action of alcohol and nicotine in the human brain. This study utilised gene expression screening to identify genes sensitive to chronic alcohol abuse within the ventral tegmental area of the human brain. Keywords: gene expression, brain, alcohol abuse, human, ventral tegmental area Overall design: RNA was extracted individually from postmortem tissue samples of human ventral tegmental area (VTA) of 6 cases with and 6 cases without chronic alcohol abuse. RNA was also extracted from various other brain region (nucleus accumbens, prefronatl cortex). All samples were linearly amplified individually as described. Reference sample: Part of the aRNA from the VTA and those of the other brain regions was pooled. Cy3 dCTP labelling of each individual VTA aRNA sample. Cy5 dCTP labelling of reference pool. One labelled VTA aRNA sample was hybridised together with labelled reference aRNA. Samples of the same pathology (alcoholics or control cases) were treated as biological replicates. Student's t-test was used to reveal differentially expressed genes.